Documents, photographs, and other items may be scanned or imaged by a dedicated scanner or a multi-function device (“MFD”) that has scanning functionality as well as at least one other capability, such as copying, printing, and faxing. In a business environment it is frequently necessary to scan and file various documents including invoices, personal identification, forms, receipts, records, pay slips, travel tickets, and reports, for example. Scanning these documents and saving them to the correct locations is important for record keeping and other business functions, such as employee compensation or benefits. Current technical solutions require several manual steps to fulfil these tasks, not actually prohibit it.
Three issues often arise when an entity within the company needs a scanned document: 1) the requesting entity cannot easily identify or locate the appropriate employee to request a document scan; 2) the appropriate employee does not know the proper formatting and destination parameters for the scan or, even if they know, they need to input these parameters manually which is burdensome and error-prone; and 3) the employee cannot locate a specific imaging device that is capable of completing the task involving scanning a document, and which the employee knows how to operate. In environments such as this, where multiple imaging devices and employees are distributed in various physical locations, obtaining needed documents is inefficient and can lead to inaccurate record keeping. Thus, a need exists for a system that can efficiently identify and notify an employee that a scan of a document is needed, and which allows the employee to quickly complete the scan at any appropriate scanner with a pre-programmed scan task.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art scanning system 100. To scan an item, a user 110 physically approaches a scanner or MFD 120 and chooses scan settings that are appropriate for the specific document. For example, the user may identify the size of the item to be scanned, select a scan resolution, select color, grayscale, or black-and-white settings, and selecting the image file type (e.g., .pdf, .gif, .jpg, etc.). The user may also select a scan destination 130. Example scan destinations include sending the scanned image to a server or other computer, emailing the scanned image, or sending the scanned image to cloud-based storage. Cloud-based storage may be provided by a third-party provider, such as OPEN TEXT EDOCS, DROPBOX, IFS, OFFICE 365, SAP, or other providers. Destinations may also include other systems and applications without storage capabilities.